UMass head looking to build support

Thursday

Oct 6, 2011 at 6:00 AMOct 6, 2011 at 11:34 AM

By Jacqueline Reis TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Robert L. Caret has been president of the University of Massachusetts for a little more than three months, and if he can find dollars as fast as he finds words, the five-campus system might be on its way to better times.

The new president, who was at UMass Medical School yesterday, said he sees a high-quality system that can be even better with more funding. The state contributes 23 percent of the system’s budget and less than 4 percent of the budget at UMass Medical School in Worcester, but Mr. Caret can recite a rapid-fire list of ideas on how to improve that. The state could take over some of the debt the campuses accrued over the last 10 years when they built their own buildings instead of waiting for the state to do so. The governor and Legislature could also decide low tuition is more important than other programs and build more money into the system’s budget.

And then there’s what Mr. Caret calls the “alpha male/alpha female” argument, which he sums up in one question he will put to state leaders: “Do you really want UConn and the state of Connecticut to be viewed ahead of Massachusetts and the University of Massachusetts?”

Mr. Caret, who has been on the job since July, inherited a system that has less state aid than it did in 2003, hundreds fewer positions than it did in 2008 and student fees that rose 7.5 percent this year. His last job was leading Towson University, a public university in Maryland, where the governor thought tuition was intolerably high and found money to reduce it.

In Massachusetts, Mr. Caret is optimistic he can mobilize a coalition to support the university system. He hopes to show people that UMass is doing its share and being “good stewards” of its resources, including those from the state, “to prove that we’re not fat cats, and we’re not wasting money,” he said. “If we garner support and we garner respect, I think it can all come together.”

Felines aside, there are very well-paid people within the UMass system, including Medical School Chancellor Michael F. Collins, whose total compensation could be as much as $862,000 if he receives his maximum performance pay. Thomas D. Manning, the head of the medical school’s Commonwealth Medicine consulting division, who has announced he will retire in June, has a total compensation package of almost $554,000. Mr. Caret’s own total compensation, including a housing allowance, is just under $600,000. He said it is simple market reality.

“The market has driven these salaries up, because the jobs have become much more political and legalistic than they ever were in the past,” he said. “We’re running a $3 billion business — the medical school being a billion plus of that all by itself — and we have to fundraise, we have to figure out how to run a $3 billion business with only 23 percent of it coming from the state…

“I used to say in California (as president of San Jose State University) — and I was there eight years and on the fundraising side brought in $50 (million) to $100 million dollars — was I worth it? I paid for myself. Now, you could say somebody else could do that, and I would argue, let them try, because it takes a certain skill set to develop the trust, to develop the leadership skills to get people, whether it’s government or private donors, to step up and support us.”

The concerns, he said, are “in many ways symbolic,” because cutting his salary by 80 percent would not have a big impact on the overall system’s budget. “It’s a symbolism that frustrates people, and I’m sensitive to it, but it is a reality, and I’m not apologetic for it, because I think we give them what they’re paying for,” he said.

He said the system tries to get faculty salaries to the 75th or 85th percentile of their peer group.

Randall Phillis, president of one of the system’s largest unions, the Massachusetts Society of Professors at UMass Amherst, said he hopes to see more faculty members added. The key, he believes, is more state funding, because students are already paying enough. In-state tuition and board at UMass Amherst this year is $22,124.

Mr. Phillis met with Mr. Caret yesterday and believes the new leader will do “his level best” to advocate for the university. “I think he understands that is a critical part of his job,” he said, adding that the new president also needs to learn about each of the campuses and their traditions and strengths.

A major part of Mr. Caret’s first year on the job will be hiring a new chancellor for Amherst, and he will soon launch a search for a new Dartmouth chancellor. In August, the attorney general found the system’s Board of Trustees had violated the state open meeting law during its hiring of Mr. Caret, and he said that since then, the Amherst search committee has been trained on the law and the Dartmouth search committee and system-wide Board of Trustees will be. He does not agree with all of the attorney general’s opinions but accepts them, and the Amherst candidates will be confidential only until a small number of finalists are named, he said.

Mr. Caret’s efforts to improve the system will include a bus tour starting Monday that will take him across the state listening to business and government leaders about the system’s strengths and weaknesses.

Mr. Caret, who will be inaugurated Nov. 1, has been in the state since April and took over from Westboro resident Jack M. Wilson in July. Mr. Caret lives in Boston. While Mr. Wilson had offices in both Boston and Shrewsbury, home of Commonwealth Medicine, UMassOnline and other facets of the system, Mr. Caret will have a single office in Boston and split his time between there, the five campuses and Shrewsbury, he said.

The person sitting in the president’s office might not make a difference in students’ day-to-day life, but Sara-Grace Reynolds, a second-year medical student and co-president of the Student Body Committee at the medical school, said she is optimistic about Mr. Caret’s abilities. She has not met him but read that he improved diversity at Towson and recruited students from the Baltimore public schools.

“That is something that I think UMass could work on,” she said, adding that some initiatives are already under way in Worcester to pull high school students in.